Those who have followed the blog for awhile know how much we love to visit sites run by the National Park Service. We took a road trip on our anniversary to Effigy Mounds National Monument to complete the Iowa National Park Sites in our passport.
We arrived at the Monument around 10 in the morning. Inside the visitor center they have a nice gift shop area and a small museum that introduces you to what life was like for the Native Americans that once lived in the area and created the mounds.
We attempted to hike to one of the mounds near the visitor center but after we were a bit in past the small mound, we decided to turn back as I was not dressed for hiking. I guess I should have done more research before we left, because most of the more significant and larger mounds you’d need to hike a ways to see, and most of the hiking is uphill since the mounds are located along the bluffs of the Mississippi River.
After visiting the mounds, we drove across the river into Wisconsin to grab a quick lunch in Prairie to Chien. They had lots of typical fast food joint to choose from as Marquette, IA and the surrounding area didn’t have much to offer.
When we crossed back into Iowa we spent a bit of time visiting Eagle’s Landing Winery in Marquette. The Winery is located right downtown and offers lots of different kinds of fruit wines. My mom had visited here before and I really liked a strawberry wine she had and wanted some of my own. Marquette also has a beautiful river overlook where we stopped for a photo op.
We also took a brief pit stop on the way back to Coralville into Strawberry Point, IA. Strawberry Point is home to the World’s Largest Strawberry. The locals gave me laughing smiles as I stepped out of the car to snap a quick picture.
Overall we had a fun outing and made it back to the hotel to get some pool time in before we walked to dinner that night at Wig and Pen. More on our favorite restaurant in the Iowa City/ Coralville area in the next post!
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